Running Academy and I

Had a great time this  morning. Instead of going for my normal Easy run this morning in my Merrell Road Glove, I decided to join the Running Academy at Lake Garden, jointly organized by Skechers Malaysia and KuMoves. The workshop is conducted on every 2nd and 4th Sunday of the month and registration can be done at here. They start the workshop at 7.30am and I was there by 7.15am. I was surprised to find that the parking was nearly full! Apparently there's 2 entrance and I've headed to one of the more popular one. I'll try the other one next time round.

While there, I bumped into Lorna Roderick nee Wong and Markus Kus who's part of KL Runners. It was a nice and pleasant surprise, especially after I found out they're helping out with the Workshop. There were quite a bunch of us there, approximately 15, with a healthy mix of Noobs like me, and more experienced people.

Apparently I got into their 4th session where they have a performance check/challenge going on. We started off with a 2K warm up where we had a group of runners chasing another, kind of like Police and Thief. Once caught, the one chased became the chaser. We follow that up with other games to get the heart rate up. What really got to me was the stairs repeat. 10 years of lack of exercise really catch up to you then. My quads tightened up and I had difficulties coming down the stairs. Needless to say, I'm pretty much bummed after that :P

I would say that, the workshop is very very nice, with lots of information and different type of exercises which you can pick  up and incorporate into your ordinary routine. It may however be a tad tough to newcomers. We had a bunch of early leavers and a girl that stayed for all the exercise emptied her breakfast after a very valiant effort to hold it in.

To people who sees this as a challenge to overcome, and as a new baseline  to work on and get better at, this is a good workshop to come for. Personally, I found out the weaker points of myself where I need to improve on in 1 session and will be working on it to get better.  For others however, they may get the wrong impression whereby this workshop is not too friendly/useful for new runners. Don't get me wrong, the organizers are nice and friendly and I can see that they are trying to make things fun and interesting to the runners. It's just that some newer runners than me may find it a bit tough to keep up.

Hopefully the organizer can address this issue especially since it's in their agenda to get people to run again. Looking forward to more sessions and more people joining in the workshop.

My current running gear and wish list

3 months into a sport is a relatively short period of time. And yet, it this short period of time what have I gotten myself into? Let's seeeeeeee.......

Shoes:
I'm currently using Skechers GoRun. It's a pretty comfortable shoes to run in. It's however not suitable for you to go shopping in. I'll explain more on this when I write a review on it. I also own an adidas JawPaw II Watersport shoes. I'm still wondering if it'll make a good substitute for barefoot running shoes. We'll see how it goes when I do test it out.

Belt/Pouch:
Currently using a twin pouch SPIBelt. Fairly decent and cuts down on the jingling of keys I would say. I can even stuff my iPhone wz casing in it.

Apps:
I'm using iSmoothRun app on iPhone to track my runs. It is feature packed compared to the rest of the apps I've used.

Wish List (Read Shopping):

Head/Sweat Band:
I'm currently eyeing Bondi Band. They're unfortunately unavailable in Malaysia as yet and have to be shipped in from US. I really hate it when sweat starts dripping from your forehead into your eyes so this is the next thing I'm getting.

Jacket/Raincoat:
Still doing research on this. Saw the Nike Vapor Windrunner and I'm drooling over it. There's also the Adiviz Jacket which glows in the dark. Doesn't seem to have any hood though for the adidas.

Cap/Hat:
Not too sure if I wanna get one or not as my main concern is heat ventilation. We shall see.

Bag:
No extra gear as yet to pack it in, but would be useful when the raining season come for me to pack in the extra clothes and towels.

Shoebag:
No extra shoes as yet so not needed yet, but I got my eyes on some of em already.

Shoes:
Oh my. The list will be too long to list down. My eyes are on Merrell, Vivobarefoot, Saucony, Skechers GoBionic, Vibram and etc. I'm a "little" picky when it comes to shoes I'm afraid. How picky can you get you ask? Let's see now.

1. Lightness: They have to be light. If I wanna train with weights attached to my feet, I can always attach it myself. 
2. Flexibility: Flexibility is a relative term I guess. Basically it should flex at the right places and allow for a full motion of feet movement to conform with road surface.
3. Heel Drop: I would say 4mm and lesser. Why? Currently I'm getting PF whenever I get into anything with a high heel drop-off. This may change in the future once my feet has strengthen up but we'll see.
4. Toe box: Wide and Big is the keyword here. I've grown used to having full motion of my toes when walking and running. I like my toes to be able to splay our, curl and have freedom of movement when they're shod.
5. Cushioned vs Non-Cushioned: I'm currently running in the Skechers GoRun which is fairly cushioned. I've yet to run in a Non-Cushioned shoe but planning to give it a shot when my feet has strengthen up

Yeah yeah, "little" is a bit inappropriate I guess. :P I also plan to buy 1 or 2 Sandals/Huaraches for comfort wear and as emergency run gear but we'll see.

I think I better put a stop on my wish list for now. It's getting kinda scary even for me. Hehe.

Too Much Too Soon.

Sorry for the lack of posting these past week. I've been a bit busy with recuperating from doing Too Much Too Soon. I manage to cause some major muscle stiffness in both my calf and shin for 2 full days. I've also been pretty fatigued recently so it's usually rest for me for the pass week.

This was mainly attributed to a busy Saturday whereby I've gone for my usual Saturday morning run with my mum. After I'm done with my training, while waiting for my mum, I thought, "Oh why not, let's go for some hills." Went up twice and felt some tension on my calf so I decided to call it a day.

I had Church Band practice scheduled after lunch, but before that, I had to pick up some Chia Seed from my supplier. Since I've had a pretty good, tiring run that morning, I decided to wear my Adidas JawPaw II since it's pretty flat and comfy. Due to some out of the blue high traffic, I ended up reaching my appointment late. I parked my car and ran over to the agreed meet up place. Running in the Adidas JawPaw II is very different from my Skechers GoRun, and I've never ran in it before (I'll write more about these 2 shoes at later date).

                                                                 My Skechers GoRun

Now you may think that it's just a short run and etc and I'm just being a sissy. Well, maybe I am, but what I DO realize is that running in the Adidas JawPaw II did some considerable "damage" on that day. Damage in the sense that due to the lack of cushioning, I'm running in an entirely different way, thus exercising totally different sets of muscles.

                                                                The Adidas JawPaw II

This by itself shouldn't be too much of a problem for seasoned runners. I'm however pretty green in running and I've been a vegetable for the pass 10 years. I've also realized that my legs have actually weaken by quite a considerable amount. How do I tell? Try and stand on 1 leg with your knees slightly bent and see if you can keep yourself stable for 1 minute.

In any case, my legs started to hurt the next morning till Tuesday (and I gung ho-ed and continue with my training :P). Be that as it may, that short run in the Adidas really stir my curiosity as to whether it's possible to run in that pair of shoes.

EDIT: Updated with photos